Robin Hood's Mansion

I'm sorry this is so long but I think it's worth it.

There’s a man who has spent most of his adult life in the kitchen. He has attended the finest of culinary schools and has on several occasions he has been asked to speak. He subscribes to all of the trade magazines and has an extensive collection of the latest cookbooks. His kitchen it is equipped with stainless steel counters, except for a large dark gray granite bar top. All of the appliances are top of the line commercial grade, he has a walk in cooler and humidity controlled wine cellar. He makes his living primarily by writing articles, public speaking or teaching private classes. His knowledge is remarkable but he rarely cooks anymore. Several times a year he will show-off with an elaborate display of his talents, but even then his assistants will do most of the work.

We have a lady at my church that loves to cook. She’s been there forever. Her husband passed away years ago and I guess she doesn’t have anything else to do, so she is always baking cookies or pies or something. There hasn’t been a funeral dinner at our church that didn’t have a least a dozen of her homemade pies. I don’t know how she manages to do it all. She’ll make all the crusts at home and then she’ll put a few pies in her oven and brings the rest to the church. Our kitchen here at the church isn’t that fancy but it’s has got to be two or three times as big as hers. I know she is probably lonely because her son and his family live out of state. I guess that’s why she always doing things for everyone else. I doubt if there is a single cookbook in her kitchen. She never makes anything fancy or exotic. But if you’ve ever been in need of a meal, you can sure testify that she can cook. You've got to love that lady, I do.

Have you ever noticed that in the bible, Jesus always seemed to get in the faces of the Pharisees. Luke 12:1b "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." Just like the chef, who cherished his own education and loved to display all that he had, what benefit is it if you don’t do anything with them. As Christians we must “live” our faith or our faith is useless.  What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? James 2:14 But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.James 2:18. Personally this touches an area in my life that I have always struggled. I have spent a great deal of time over the past several months thinking on this topic. I believe that my greatest sin is not what I done, but rather what I've failed to do. Certainly I do sin by doing thing I shouldn't, but I don’t smoke. I don’t do drugs. I don’t use bad language. I don’t cheat on my wife. I don’t steal. I don’t lie. Ok, I just lied. But I do go to Church. I go on Sunday’s and Wednesday’s. I get up and go to work everyday. I try be nice to everyone. Are you getting the picture? Would you say that I am impressing God? Do you think God is saying to those around Him, that I am one fine individual? I doubt it. Yes God loves me and yes God cares about what I am doing. But please follow this thought. The bad stuff I’ve done can all be forgiven. The everyday things that I do, is somewhat irrelevant. What’s left? Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins James 4:17. I need to change my life, so that my life can change others.
I don’t know too much about Robin Hood so for the purpose of this illustration I will make up my own profile. Robin Hood is mid-thirties, has a couple tattoos, an earring and his language is not always family friendly. He is divorced. He rarely goes to church. He hates Rush Limbaugh and doesn’t even know James Dobson. Yet he says he is a Christian. The crowd he runs with is pretty much the same. He takes from the rich and gives to the poor. “Takes from the rich” isn't that stealing. I hope God has mercy on his soul.  If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames I Cor 3:12-15.
Let me illustrate this with a big bag of M&M’s. We separate the colors and call the red ones sin. The green ones are the good deeds that we do and the brown ones are indifferent. Throughout the day I assign each of my deeds into one of these categories by placing one of the colored M&M’s into a clear glass jar. I get up and go to work. That is good, but that is what is required of me so I will add a brown M&M to the jar. I didn’t swear at jerk that pulled out in front of me. Ok, but another brown. After nearly a week of this I am proud to see just a very small amount of red in my jar. I feel good about my life, I really don’t struggle with all the temptations that others seem to. One Sunday my wife told me that we needed to take a family home after church again. They live the other direction and I can’t figure out why they can’t get their car fixed and drive themselves. I did it anyway, and added one more brown to my jar. I happen to notice my wife was able to add a green M&M to hers. She must have been reaching out in love or something. Months go by and we all assemble together with our jars. I’ve noticed that our clear jars all have covers on them now. Some are decorative fabric with lace and others are just paced into paper bags. Not mine. I didn’t work that hard, In fact I barely change my life at all and there is still only a small number of red among my jar. I noticed that Robin Hood had just come in. He was late. We were given instructions to take off the coverings to our jars so that the contents were visible. Then we were to bring them forward to have them displayed. I was first. By this time we all had accumulated several jars and I emptied mine onto the table up on the platform. Those at the table quickly separated the colors. As I’ve mentioned, I had very few red ones. Then they took the red and brown colored M&M’s and slid them off the table into the trash. The green M&M’s were put back into one of my jars and I was asked to have a seat again. This is it. This is all I have left. One by one each of us received the same treatment. We were nearly finished when Robin Hood made it to the front of the line. I remember thinking earlier how embarrassing it would be to have nothing but red and green, it looked like Christmas. I bet he had four or five times as much red M&M’s as most of us. What a sinner I had thought. But after his red and brown were discarded what remained seemed odd. He had a couple of jars; no it was more like a bunch of jars, all green. Unfair! Unfair! I wanted to scream but it was to late now. If we believe in the saving grace of Jesus and ask Him into lives, we will be saved. Our sins are forgiven and forgotten. King David wrote in Psalm 32:1-2 Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. King David was a man after God’s own heart. God loved and blessed David. David also had plenty of sin in his life. Not only did he covet another mans wife and have her husband killed but other men died as well so that David’s own sin would not be exposed. I would assume that if David was living today, he would most likely struggle with internet porn. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all had major issues in their own lives. Jacobs’s life reads like a soap opera. The prostitute Rahab is celebrated in Hebrews 11 for hiding the spies. How did she do this? She lied.  What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Romans 6:1-2.  God hates sin. We should live a life so that other may not stubble on account of us. If you go to see your favorite basketball team and throughout the entire game you restrain yourself from any negative outbursts, are you supporting them? Your lack of negativity isn’t good enough. You also need to stand up and cheer, let them know your there, show your support by what you do. As Christians we need to get off the bench and heat things up a bit.  So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth Rev 3:16. Robin Hood had made plenty of poor decisions in his life. But he possessed an intense passion that always had him running hot or cold. The bible is filled with risk takers. Those who often went out on a limb, sometimes for God and sometimes for themselves. My prayer today is that I begin to live a life that stretches my faith, builds my courage and pushes my limits. How will you respond? By thinking, Gods forgiveness is great enough for me to do wrong, or rather when I’ve done wrong, God still wants to use me.  "Yes, I'm on my way! I'll be there soon! I'm bringing my payroll with me. I'll pay all people in full for their life's work. I'm A to Z, the First and the Final, Beginning and Conclusion. Rev 22:12

I wish that there were a magic pill that you could take to turn all of our good intentions and Godly desires into actions. As you know it is not that easy. Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit, learn to recognize His leading and then obey.